# Garfield County, Colorado

Garfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,685. The county seat is Glenwood Springs. The county is named in honor of United States President James A. Garfield. Garfield County is included in the Glenwood Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Edwards-Glenwood Springs, CO Combined Statistical Area.

## Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,956 square miles (7,660 km$^2$), of which 2,948 square miles (7,640 km$^2$) is land and 8.3 square miles (21 km$^2$) (0.3%) is water.

### Adjacent counties

* Rio Blanco County - north
* Routt County - northeast
* Eagle County - east
* Pitkin County - southeast
* Mesa County - south
* Grand County, Utah - southwest
* Uintah County, Utah - northwest

### Major highways

* Interstate 70
* I-70 BL
* I-70 BL
* U.S. Highway 6
* State Highway 13
* State Highway 82
* State Highway 133
* State Highway 139
* State Highway 325

### Protected areas

* Flat Tops Wilderness
* Grand Mesa National Forest
* Harvey Gap State Park
* Rifle Falls State Park
* Rifle Gap State Park
* Routt National Forest
* White River National Forest

### Scenic byways

* Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway National Scenic Byway
* Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway
* West Elk Loop Scenic Byway

## Demographics

The 2019 Census population estimate for Garfield County is 60,061, a 6.5% increase from the 2010 Census.
* Population density per square mile: 19.1 (2010)
* Race Estimations (2019)
** White alone, not Hispanic or Latino (67.4%)
** Hispanic or Latino (29.3%)
** Black or African American alone (1.3%)
** American Indian and Alaskan Native alone (1.7%)
** Asian, alone (0.9%)
** Two or more races (2.0%)
* Age and Sex Estimations (2019)
** Persons under 5 years of age (6.8%)
** Persons under 18 years of age (24.9%)
** Persons 65 years of age and over (13.8%)
** Female persons (48.9%)
* Housing
** Housing units, 2019: (24,363)
** Owner occupied housing unit rate, 2014-2018: (66.9%)
** Persons per household, 2014-2018: (2.73)
* Education (2014-2018)
** High school graduate (87.5%)
** Bachelor's degree or higher (30.0%)
* Income and Poverty (2014 - 2018)
** Median household income: ($72, 898)
** Per capita income: $32,491)
** Persons in poverty: (8.4%)

## Education

Garfield County is served by three public school districts:
* Roaring Fork School District RE-1, serving Glenwood Springs and Carbondale
* Garfield County School District RE-2, serving Rifle, New Castle, and Silt
* Garfield County School District 16, serving Parachute and Battlement Mesa
The county is also home to private schools, including Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, St. Stephen Catholic School in Glenwood Springs, and Liberty Classical Academy in New Castle.

### Higher Education

The county is home to multiple campuses of Colorado Mountain College, a community college serving much of western Colorado. CMC operates a flagship residential campus at Spring Valley in the community of Cattle Creek, just south of Glenwood Springs. Additional branch campuses in Garfield County are located in Glenwood Springs, Rifle, and Carbondale.

## Economy
### Top Employers

As of its 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Garfield County's top employers are:
| # | Employer | Employee range |
| 1 | Valley View Hospital | 1,000 - 1,250 |
| 2 | Roaring Fork School District RE-1 | 500 - 999 |
| 3 | Garfield County School District RE-2 | 500 - 999 |
| 4 | Grand River Hospital | 500 - 999 |
| 5 | City Market | 500 - 999 |
| 6 | Garfield County | 250 - 499 |
| 7 | Colorado Mountain College | 250 - 499 |
| 8 | Walmart | 250 - 499 |
| 9 | City of Glenwood Springs | 200 - 499 |
| 10 | Alpine Bank | 100 - 249 |

## Government
### Structure

Garfield County is governed by a board of three county commissioners, who oversee the county's financial affairs, infrastructure developments, public health matters, and general economic development.

### Emergency Services

The Garfield County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement and civil services, and operates the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs. GCSO also oversees the county's emergency management, search and rescue, and tactical response functions.
Colorado River Fire Rescue, established in 2012, oversees fire and paramedic response for much of the county. Glenwood Springs maintains its own municipal fire department. Also operating in the county is the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District, serving Carbondale and the nearby communities of Redstone (located in Pitkin County) and Marble (located in Gunnison County).

### Public Transportation

Public transportation is provided by the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority. RFTA is the second-largest public transportation entity in Colorado (behind the Denver area's Regional Transportation District), and the largest rural public transit provider in the United States, operating busses across a 70-mile stretch from Rifle to Aspen. The Parachute Area Transit System (PATS) connects the western communities of Parachute and Battlement Mesa to Rifle, offering connecting routes to RFTA.
Bustang, Colorado's inter-city bus service, runs its east-west route from Denver Union Station to Grand Junction, making stops in Glenwood Springs, Rifle, and Parachute.
Amtrak, running from Chicago to Emeryville, California, makes a stop in Glenwood Springs.
Garfield County is home to two airports: Rifle Garfield County Airport is located just east of the city of Rifle, while KGWS Sumers Airpark (formerly known as the Glenwood Springs Municipal Airport) is located in south Glenwood Springs.

### Prison

The Rifle Correctional Center, operated by the Colorado Department of Corrections, is a 192-bed minimum security prison located in unincorporated Garfield County, nine miles north of Rifle.

### Elected Officials

| Position | Elected Official |
| County Commissioner, District 1 | Tom Jankovsky |
| County Commissioner, District 2 | Perry Will |
| County Commissioner, District 3 | Mike Samson |
| County Assessor | Jim Yellico |
| County Clerk and Recorder | Jackie Harmon |
| County Coroner | Robert Glassmire |
| County Sheriff | Lou Vallario |
| County Surveyor | Scott Aibner |
| County Treasurer/Public Trustee | Carrie Couey |
Garfield County lies within Colorado's 9th Judicial District, represented by District Attorney Jefferson J. Cheney. The 9th District, which serves Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties, operates its main office at the Garfield County Courthouse in Glenwood Springs.

## Politics

Voting participation rates in Garfield County are above the U.S. national average. In the 2018 general election, 65% of eligible voters participated. In the 2020 presidential election, 84.47% eligible voters participated. The county leans slightly Republican based on vote totals in elections from 2008 to 2018, with an estimated range of 2 to 1,000 votes often determining candidate outcomes for the county.
Garfield County has primarily voted for Republican Party candidates in presidential elections throughout its history, with the county only failing to back the Republican candidate ten times from 1884 to 2020. Although the county includes the relatively liberal cities of Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, this is somewhat outweighed by the nearby towns of Rifle, Silt, Parachute, and Battlement Mesa. Until 2020, the most recent Democratic win was by Bill Clinton in 1992, but Republicans were held to a plurality of the county's votes in half of the six following presidential elections prior to 2020. Notably, Barack Obama lost the county to John McCain by two votes in 2008.
In 2020, Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the county since Clinton in 1992, with about 50% of the vote. No Democratic presidential candidate has won a majority of the vote in the county since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, although in 2020, Biden was just 26 votes shy of having the majority of the vote in the county. The county's leftward trend continued significantly in 2022, during which it backed the Democratic candidates and eventual winners in every statewide race.
The county lies in Colorado's 3rd congressional district, represented by Republican Jeff Hurd.
United States presidential election results for Garfield County, Colorado :
| Year | Republican | Republican | Democratic | Democratic | Third party(ies) | Third party(ies) |
| Year | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % |
| 2024 | 14,493 | 47.71% | 15,128 | 49.80% | 755 | 2.49% |
| 2020 | 14,717 | 47.62% | 15,427 | 49.92% | 760 | 2.46% |
| 2016 | 13,132 | 49.61% | 11,271 | 42.58% | 2,067 | 7.81% |
| 2012 | 12,535 | 51.36% | 11,305 | 46.32% | 568 | 2.33% |
| 2008 | 11,359 | 49.21% | 11,357 | 49.20% | 366 | 1.59% |
| 2004 | 11,123 | 53.87% | 9,228 | 44.69% | 296 | 1.43% |
| 2000 | 9,103 | 53.22% | 6,087 | 35.59% | 1,914 | 11.19% |
| 1996 | 6,281 | 44.43% | 5,722 | 40.47% | 2,135 | 15.10% |
| 1992 | 4,404 | 31.51% | 5,082 | 36.36% | 4,490 | 32.13% |
| 1988 | 6,358 | 57.21% | 4,620 | 41.57% | 136 | 1.22% |
| 1984 | 7,111 | 69.14% | 3,076 | 29.91% | 98 | 0.95% |
| 1980 | 5,416 | 58.08% | 2,639 | 28.30% | 1,270 | 13.62% |
| 1976 | 4,699 | 59.74% | 2,852 | 36.26% | 315 | 4.00% |
| 1972 | 4,452 | 66.27% | 2,088 | 31.08% | 178 | 2.65% |
| 1968 | 3,157 | 52.24% | 2,273 | 37.61% | 613 | 10.14% |
| 1964 | 2,282 | 41.58% | 3,196 | 58.24% | 10 | 0.18% |
| 1960 | 3,215 | 58.04% | 2,313 | 41.76% | 11 | 0.20% |
| 1956 | 3,332 | 62.90% | 1,953 | 36.87% | 12 | 0.23% |
| 1952 | 3,914 | 68.44% | 1,777 | 31.07% | 28 | 0.49% |
| 1948 | 2,416 | 50.10% | 2,364 | 49.03% | 42 | 0.87% |
| 1944 | 2,588 | 57.97% | 1,865 | 41.78% | 11 | 0.25% |
| 1940 | 2,894 | 57.18% | 2,141 | 42.30% | 26 | 0.51% |
| 1936 | 1,945 | 42.95% | 2,406 | 53.14% | 177 | 3.91% |
| 1932 | 1,734 | 36.05% | 2,946 | 61.25% | 130 | 2.70% |
| 1928 | 2,435 | 60.03% | 1,562 | 38.51% | 59 | 1.45% |
| 1924 | 1,934 | 51.27% | 917 | 24.31% | 921 | 24.42% |
| 1920 | 1,912 | 54.32% | 1,489 | 42.30% | 119 | 3.38% |
| 1916 | 1,139 | 29.86% | 2,479 | 64.98% | 197 | 5.16% |
| 1912 | 824 | 21.10% | 1,806 | 46.25% | 1,275 | 32.65% |
| 1908 | 1,504 | 41.99% | 1,898 | 52.99% | 180 | 5.03% |
| 1904 | 1,639 | 53.09% | 1,286 | 41.66% | 162 | 5.25% |
| 1900 | 826 | 32.29% | 1,700 | 66.46% | 32 | 1.25% |
| 1896 | 173 | 7.61% | 2,065 | 90.81% | 36 | 1.58% |
| 1892 | 634 | 47.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 715 | 53.00% |
| 1888 | 1,110 | 56.63% | 820 | 41.84% | 30 | 1.53% |
| 1884 | 245 | 63.80% | 139 | 36.20% | 0 | 0.00% |

## Communities
### Cities

* Glenwood Springs
* Rifle

### Towns

* Carbonate (ghost town)
* Carbondale
* New Castle
* Parachute
* Silt

### Census-designated places

* Battlement Mesa
* Catherine
* Cattle Creek
* Chacra
* Mulford
* No Name
* ↑ Despite having no permanent population since the 1890 US Census, the town's property owners voted to reactivate the local government in 2014.